Helmy confessed that his side made a few mistakes that helped Sundowns win the match. The coach first talked about his questionable substitute after Marouf Youssef replaced Shikabala: “I made this substitute to secure our lines that’s all,”

Also, Mohamed Ibrahim was injured in the second half and had to be substituted. “I feel bad for Ibrahim’s injury, this of course affected our performance during the match,” he added. Zamalek’s doctor, Waleed Abdelrahman, confirmed that Ibrahim will undergo a surgery and will be out of action for three months.

“We helped Sundowns win the match, we also made some mistakes that we will have to work on for the second leg match,” Helmy concluded.